Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Decreases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,213,803 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 46,742 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $791,147,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. NewEdge Wealth LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $277,696,000 after acquiring an additional 93,293 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 89,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $25,679,000 after purchasing an additional 2,269 shares in the last quarter. Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd as trustee for Retail Employees Superannuation Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $28,902,000. W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co raised its holdings in Alphabet by 17.1% in the 4th quarter. W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co now owns 118,966 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,236,000 after purchasing an additional 17,415 shares during the period. Finally, KLCM Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 66.1% in the 4th quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. now owns 22,877 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,161,000 after purchasing an additional 9,105 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $425.00 price target (up from $405.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Truist Financial set a $420.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. DA Davidson set a $350.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $411.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $420.19.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud revenue growth and expanding margins continue to support Alphabet’s AI investment strategy. Supporters argue that cloud growth—reportedly up 82% year over year—could eventually justify the company’s much higher spending. Google Cloud growth article
• Positive Sentiment: A federal judge rejected a forced breakup of Google’s ad-tech business, limiting the immediate structural risk to Alphabet. The company will instead face behavioral remedies, although the ad-network business recently contracted. Google ad-business ruling
• Positive Sentiment: New AI features in Gmail, Docs and Keep, along with continued Gemini development, could improve user engagement and strengthen Alphabet’s competitive position in generative AI. Rosenblatt also reaffirmed a buy rating with a $410 price target. Google AI product launch
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet will pay a quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share on September 14 to shareholders of record on September 4, providing a modest income component but unlikely to materially change the investment case. Alphabet dividend article
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet raised 2026 capital-spending guidance to approximately $195 billion–$205 billion. Second-quarter free cash flow turned negative as capital expenditures reached $44.9 billion, raising concerns that AI infrastructure spending may take years to generate adequate returns. Alphabet cloud margins and AI spending
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are also concerned about execution: Gemini 3.5 Pro reportedly remained delayed, while the company faces multiple securities-fraud investigations and continued scrutiny over its ad-tech practices. These issues add legal and competitive risk to an already expensive AI buildout. Gemini delay article

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $338.46 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $4.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $349.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $342.87. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $231.90 and a twelve month high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.42%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.71, for a total value of $27,692.22. Following the sale, the director owned 18,995 shares in the company, valued at $6,414,801.45. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total transaction of $149,606.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,125,015.20. This trade represents a 1.61% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 451,925 shares of company stock worth $12,371,544 over the last quarter. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.